WATERTOWN, NY - Doug Hoffman may be leading the polls in the 23rd Congressional District Election but his camp says that they are "Running this race until nine-o'clock Tuesday."

Pulling out the stops last night, Hoffman's campaign hosted a rally in Watertown with some atypical star presence for a rural NY Special Election race.  Former Presidential contender, actor, and former US Senator Fred Thompson and his wife Jeri were at the rally, along with war hero Scott O'Grady, and country music superstar John Rich.

Senator Thompson spoke with us prior to the rally saying that he came out for Hoffman because he feels that this race is important, not just to the residents of the 23rd district but to America as a whole.

"Polls show that 40% of Americans identify themselves as Conservatives and only 20% identify themselves as Liberals," Thompson said. "It's the left-wing politicians that are out of step with the country... I admire Doug Hoffman for the stance he's taking and the job he's done."

Hoffman's rally gathered more than 300 attendees, considerably more than that of his opponent's rally across town which featured Vice President Joe Biden stumping for Owens.

Speaking to the crowd, both Senator Thompson and his wife Jeri whipped the attendees to a frenzy saying that America was fed-up with the Pelosi agenda and that "The eyes of the nation... are on New York 23 tonight." and that Hoffman's election would "Shake the foundations of Washington."

He took the opportunity to both reiterate Hoffman's platform of lower taxes, no earmarks, no socialized health care, no Card Check, and no Cap and Trade as well as to denigrate the Pelosi agenda, reiterating his earlier public statements on the failure of the stimulus package and the folly of spending trillions more for a country already in unrecoverable debt.

When Thompson mentioned that Vice President Joe Biden had flown in to speak behalf of Bill Owens, the crowd booed.  Thompson settled them down and joked "Now, now, Vice President Biden is just doing his job.... you all know that it's the job of the Vice President to officiate at funerals."

Scott O'Grady, the Air Force pilot whose ordeal was the basis for the 2001 movie Behind Enemy Lines, spoke for several minutes as well, declaring his support for Hoffman and reinforcing the Republican Party's statements over the past few days in which they have now backed Hoffman as the candidate who will support the military and Fort Drum.

Country singer John Rich of the superstar duo Big & Rich spoke briefly as well predicting that today there'd be "a lot of conservative partying going on in this neck of the woods."  Rich entertained the crowd, getting them fired up with a rendition of Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" and several of his songs as well.

During his own speech, Doug Hoffman solidified his pledges to work for Fort Drum, to create new jobs and new businesses and to carry forward an economic agenda that can benefit us all for the future.

"I'm not going to fool around," he told the crowd. "I'm going to get on the Armed Services Committee and I'm going to make sure that everything we can do for Fort Drum, we do it. I'm going to make sure that we help Watertown with new jobs, new businesses and new economy that's going to carry us through for the next 10, 20, 50 years."

Click here for more photos from the Hoffman rally